


The Client

by HogarPlinth



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Ghosts, Mystery, Post-Movie, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27777463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogarPlinth/pseuds/HogarPlinth
Summary: Laura and Carmilla have set up a Paranormal Investigations firm and are about to embark on their first real case – a simple case of a ghostly goings on!
Relationships: Laura Hollis/Carmilla Karnstein
Kudos: 9





	1. The Client

Laura sat at her desk in their new agency’s office, trying to finish the piece she is writing for her ‘real’ job. After a final read-through, a bit of last-minute editing, and linking to sources she should have this piece ready to submit. That would be her done for the day. Then she could devote some time to the new agency, perhaps write a catching mission statement and slogan.  
Having the office space double up as both her workspace and the agency’s headquarters has given her a place to operate that would separate work from home. Even if this agency idea didn’t catch on, the office was still a good investment.  
She looked up and took in the new office, most of what they needed had been moved in and only a few boxes needed unpacking. She had done her best to decorate and personalize the place. There were pictures of Carmilla and herself graduating, hiking, partying, and a few plants in brightly colored pots. Unfortunately, these were countered by the very functional and institutionally dull-colored office furniture and equipment. A wall-mounted TV silently played a 24-hour news channel, and an empty whiteboard completed the furniture. There were a few things that were still needed, a hot chocolate machine!

“Mrs. Karnstein?”

“What? Yes, I mean no sorry, I’m Laura Hollis how can I help you, Miss?”

Laura was startled out of her reverie by the sudden question, not having heard the office door open and blinked in surprise at the woman stood in the doorway in front of her. The woman was very smartly dressed clutching a large designer purse in front of her with both hands. She appeared to be nervous and had not completely entered the office as if afraid of the commitment that would imply. Her eyes darting around the room as if expecting something to jump out at her.

“Jane, Mrs. Jane Turner, my niece Catherine said that your agency helps with … um … unusual situations”

“Yes, we do” Laura answered brightly having recovered from her initial confusion “Hollis and Karnstein specialize in the unusual, we helped Cathy with her situation. Can you tell me about your situation?”

“Please sit down” She added seeing that her visitor was still standing. Looking suspiciously at the chair in front of her, Mrs. Turner screwed up her courage, walked into the office and sat down, her purse resting on her knees almost as a protective barricade.

After starting the voice memo app on her phone and turning over a new page on her notepad Laura prepared to take some notes. 

“Please tell me as much as you can about this situation”

“Well it terrible, frightful things seen in the churchyard; people are at their wit's end. People are afraid to leave their homes. Stones thrown at visitors to the churchyard, Flowers overturned, Old Mrs. Jepsum heard voices telling her to leave when she was tidying. There have been lights and noises at night” The words almost flew out of Mrs. Turner

Laura waited for her to draw a breath before she interrupted. “Let me take a few details”

She hoped that focusing Jane on some mundane facts about herself would calm her down and allow her to be more rational.

Once Laura had collected a few basic details about Jane Turner she prompted her to carry on “and where is all of this happening?”

“Oh, sorry Whitney, we’re about 10 miles north of the city on the coast road”.

“The events are always centered on the churchyard”

“Yes, that correct, I am part of a group that volunteers at the church. We help maintain the church, its grounds, and the graveyard. Keeping things neat and tidy, making sure that the flowers are fresh, the pews are dusted, keeping the grounds free from litter, that kind of thing. Since the outbreak of these events. The group has got smaller and smaller and now no one will go to the church alone.”

There have been reports of things being seen at night, white shapes moving among the headstones. Nobody can do anything about them. Bob McBurnie, he is the groundskeeper, stayed up all night to catch whoever is doing this, but he won’t say what happened that night and refuses to go back.

Reverend Bartholomew prays every day for deliverance from this unholy horror but still, it haunts our lives. 

It’s even reached the local paper which is asking if Reverend Bartholomew is doing this. I’m sure he isn’t, he’s a good man. Will you help us?”

Jane hands Laura a newspaper cutting from her purse. Laura unfolds it on her desk to see a grainy blurred photograph of something white on a black background beneath an overly dramatic headline “Horror Haunts Us!!!”

Laura skims the article there are a lot of quotes from local people but few facts other than the name of the church and a request for photographs of the ‘Whitney Wraith’.

“So, what exactly do you do here?

“Typically, in a case like this, we will do some background research into the events themselves and the locations where these events have manifested themselves. Have these events occurred before? What time of day do these events occur? That sort of thing.  
There may also be a bit of field investigation to see these locations, speak to any witness and to get a firsthand feeling for the locations. If possible, we will try to witness the events ourselves, and then get to the bottom of these events at which point we will report back to the client. In this case you.  
Usually, the explanation is something ordinary and mundane” – she said trying to reassure their new client.

There is a tap on the door and Carmilla pushes it open and walks in.

Jane Turner rises from her seat at the interruption, Laura quickly follows suit and introduces Camilla.

“Jane Turner, this is Carmilla Karnstein, my partner. Mrs. Turner has come to us for help.”

“Please to meet you, Mrs. Turner. Let me assure you that whatever your situation Karnstein and Hollis are the agency to help you.”

Jane looks from Laura to Carmilla and back again.

“Catherine was fulsome in her praise of you but, no offense, you seem a bit, well, inexperienced for this type of work”

Looking at Carmilla Laura says “Don’t worry about that, appearances can be deceptive between us we have a lot of experience with the supernatural.” Thankful that Mrs. Turner didn’t see Carmilla’s raised eyebrow.

“Don’t worry, we can do some research here at the office then a trip to Whitney to get to the bottom of this mystery.”

“Thank you. Thank you. If you need anything, contact me” Jane gathered her things, shook hands with Laura, and headed for the door. 

“We’ll be in touch. Goodbye” said Laura as she held the door open for Jane and closing it after her. Laura turns to Carmilla with a big grin on her face barely able to contain her excitement.

“We have a case!”


	2. The Case

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having secured their first real case, Laura is excited to investigate the reports of a ghost.

Standing in front of the whiteboard Laura stuck one last note to it. The note completes a Day-Glo halo around the newspaper cutting Jane had provided. The notes have all the facts they have about this case. They are disappointingly few in number. A couple of dates, some names, and a few events.

Carmilla walks up silently behind Laura and looks at the board over her shoulder.

“I’ve got these for your art installation” and with a smirk at Laura squeak of surprise reaches up and sticks a map of Whitney and a calendar haphazardly to the board.

“Did you find anything online?” she adds looking at the whiteboard.

“I scrolled through all the online editions, they are full of the usual small-town stuff, reports of Council sessions, petty vandalism, theatrical productions, sports reports. 

Apart from the edition Jane gave us there are no other ghost-related stories except for the Halloween editions. There was one letter complaining about someone, presumably teenagers, setting fires in the churchyard. I made a note to follow that up with Reverend Bartholomew.

There is not much to add to what we already know. It may be worth seeing if they have archived editions available. 

Are you up for a field trip?”

During the car tip to Whitney, Laura outlines her plan.

“I’ve spoken to the paper’s editor and all of the archives are stored in the library. We’ll start there, then we need to talk to Reverend Bartholomew and Mrs. Turner’s church group. Finally, we spend the night staking out the churchyard. I packed snacks!”

“Calm down, cupcake. Let’s try to get there on one piece”

At the library Laura enquires about the newspaper archives and is pointed towards the microfiche machines. Whilst Laura sits down in front of a machine with a folder of films containing the newspaper archive, she sends Carmilla to check on anything the library has on local history.

After watching newspaper pages flash past her, like some very clunky movie montage, for over a couple of hours Laura was beginning to feel car sick. She stared at her notepad until it stopped moving. Then she added a note that ghosts were not being reported to the paper. She shuts the machine down and returns the fiche folder to the librarian. 

The librarian points her in the direction of the local history section, and she sets off to find Carmilla. The history section is empty. So, she searches the rest of the library looking for Carmilla and finds her sitting on the floor surrounded by books, reading in the fiction section.

“What are you doing?” Laura hisses at Carmilla 

“Hush! Schalken the Painter, it’s very good” Carmilla smirked before closing the book and standing up.

“Before you get your adorable scrunched up annoyed face on, I think the library is a bust. There was nothing in the history section, basically the town has been almost unchanged since Revolutionary times with a post war expansion like this library and as you seemed engrossed the archives, I went exploring.”

As she returns her books to the stacks she continues “I checked with the librarians and they have not heard of any local ghost stories. I thought there might have been some by local authors written as fiction but no such luck.”

Turning from the stack she saw that Laura was still stood there her arms folded across her chest, her face slowly morphing into a smile. Carmilla held out her hand which Laura took.

Carmilla returns the smile “Hot Chocolate? I’m buying”.

Laura nods and lets Carmilla lead the way.

They spend the rest of the day interviewing Reverend Bartholomew and Mrs. Turner’s friends but without adding much to their pool of knowledge.

That night, Laura has parked her car on the curbside across the street from the church making sure that they could see two sides of the churchyard. It was dark night, although there was just enough light to see the churchyard but not enough to pick out any details.

Laura pulls her thick jacket and a large bag from the back seat and struggles into the jacket and then puts the bag on the floor between her feet. She sits back and looks at the churchyard hoping for something to happen.

Quite quickly Laura realizes that stakeouts were very boring and not like in any movie she has seen, and she begins to fidget in her seat to stop herself yawning. 

“Relax cupcake or you’ll never last the night!” Carmilla said looking up from the book she was reading.

“I don’t want to miss anything

“Don’t worry we won't. Get some sleep, you look exhausted, you’ve been going all day. I’ll keep watch.” Laura pulled a small cushion out of her bag and tucked it under her head to get comfortable. Carmilla tucked some of Laura’s hair behind her ear and watched as the girl relaxed and fell asleep.

It was pitch dark when Laura woke up, Carmilla was still reading.

“Did I miss anything?” she said as she stretched.

“No Cupcake, the dead did not rise up while you were asleep.” she said with a grin.

“I’m going for a look around and try to walk of this stiffness.”

Laura gets out of the car and walks over to the churchyard and walks slowly among the stones her small flashlight waving ahead of her. As she explores the churchyard, she has the uncomfortable feeling that there is someone following her. She stops and stands still trying to listen for the mysterious follower, but there was nothing, just the leaves rustling as a breeze stirred the trees and the light buzz of traffic in the distance.

“Woman the hell up Hollis” she mutters to herself 

Her self-administered pep talk is ended by the crash of something striking a nearby headstone.

“Carm, that’s not funny” she says as she swings her flashlight around but finds herself alone.

Another crash, this time closer. Laura emits a squeak and races out of the graveyard and back to the car.

Laura rips open the car door, throws herself into the seat, and sits staring through the windshield breathing heavily. She flinches when Carmilla’s hand touches her shoulder.

“Hey, what’s got in you?” Carmilla says softly.

“There was something out there, it threw stones at me”

“it’s a spooky graveyard at night, it’s your imagination playing tricks on you, Cupcake, have a snack cake.” Carmilla’s softly spoken words calm Laura a bit and she leans into Carmilla’s hug, enjoying her comforting touch.

By early morning, Laura is still watching the churchyard for any signs of activity. Carmilla is asleep, or as close to asleep as she gets which is being still and unmoving. The sun is beginning to peek above the horizon, filling the churchyard with long deep shadows, throwing everything, gravestones into bright contrast. There among gravestones, Laura spots a large white shape moving backward and forwards among the deep shadows as if looking for something.

Reaching across Laura shakes Carmilla out of her slumber.

“Come on I see something”

“Urrgh what”

“Get up there’s something there”

Getting out of the car they rush towards the gate in the churchyard wall. When they reach the gate, Laura opens it and dashes through. Carmilla tries to follow her but runs into an invisible barrier and is knocked backward and lands on her butt.

Laura, hearing her girlfriend fall over, looks back at Carmilla sat on the sidewalk.

“Come on”

“I can’t go in there” she grumbled as she gets to her feet and dusts off her pants. Laura looks at her, very confused.

“Vampire, Holy ground, yada yada”

“OK, go around the outside, that way, hurry or it’ll get away” pointing to the left before heading back into the churchyard.

Carmilla walks quickly around the side of the churchyard following the low wall, trying to keep Laura in sight, but only catching glimpses of her as she moves between the gravestones. She stops when she saw a shape lurking by a large gravestone. Before she can call out to warn Laura, some large leaps over the wall and crashes into her.

Hearing Carmilla cry out Laura hurries over to the wall. Leaning over she sees Carmilla wrestling with a large pale-colored dog which is trying to lick her face.

“I see you made a friend then. He seems friendly”

“Not funny cupcake, get this thing off me!”

Laura scrambles over the wall, landing next to Carmilla. She grabs the dog’s collar and pulls it off Carmilla. While holding the dog by its collar, she shines her flashlight on the tag.

“Quick Carm, get the camera and take some shots of Tiny in the churchyard”

“Tiny?”

“That’s what the tag says”

Laura takes Tiny back in the churchyard while Carmilla retrieves her camera and they shoot images of Tiny among the gravestones and of Laura and Tiny.

“Hold him still Carm I’m trying to read the owner’s number”

While Laura makes the call, Carmilla walks back to the wall surrounding the churchyard and tries to peer over it and is surprised not to be met by the barrier that shocked her earlier and that she can lean over the wall. Looking towards the spot where she saw the shape lurking, she had the feeling that something wasn’t right but can’t identify it.

Laura calls out to snap her back to the present “Come on we’re got to take Tiny home”.

“Home? You’re not adopting him!” She says sternly.

“No, his home, I’ve got the address from Mrs. Harrison his owner. It’s not far. Come on” and with that Tiny takes off, heading home presumably, with Laura struggling to keep up and hanging on desperately to the dog’s collar. With one last glance into the graveyard Carmilla turns and follows them.

After Laura has waved goodbye to Mrs. Harrison and Tiny, she walks back to the car with Carmilla, mentally writing up the solution to this case. 

“What are you going to tell Mrs. Turner?” Carmilla asks her

“That the ‘ghost’ is just Mrs. Harrison’s dog wandering about the churchyard. And we have the pictures to prove it. Carm, we have successfully solved our first real case! I can’t wait to get this written up”

“and what about the other effects, the voices, the thrown objects?”

“as you said, it’s a spooky churchyard at night and probably people’s minds playing tricks on them”

As they set off for home, Carmilla has the same uneasy feeling she had at the churchyard earlier, she turns around in her seat to take one last look at the churchyard and moving among the gravestones was a large white shape that is, definitely, not Tiny.


	3. Back to the Graveyard

**A return to Whitney**

Despite Laura being happy that they have solved this case, Carmilla lay in bed trying to identify what has caused her unease at the graveyard. She didn’t need the sleep in the same way that humans did but it was nice to be able to turn off and even better in the arms of the woman she loved. Gently extracted herself from Laura’s arms she got out of bed, threw on a shirt, and quietly walked towards the door. Glancing back, she smiled at Laura before heading to the spare room they used as an occasional office.

She switched on her laptop and read the case notes before beginning some research of her own. Although this was Laura’s specialty, Carmilla needed to do this for herself, something bothered her about the case.

By early next morning, Carmilla had found what she was looking for, the replies she had received from her emails should enable her to wrap up this case properly. She just had to convince Laura that they had to go back and actually solve the case.

Hearing the gentle changes to the sound of Laura’s breathing as she began to wake up, Carmilla went into the kitchen and began to make Laura breakfast. She had seen Laura do this hundreds of times and the few times she had done it had not been too difficult.

By the time she heard the shower stop running, breakfast was ready. Her own mug of blood in her hand she looked at the plate of waffles ready for Laura and tried to ignore the waffle batter-coated mess in the sink.

“Morning Carm, hmm breakfast and wow! Waffles my favorite” Laura gave Carmilla a quick kiss and then sat down in front of her waffles.

Laura picked up her Tardis mug and took a sip and then realized what had just happened.

“What’s going on? You don’t eat breakfast and never make it. What’s wrong? Carmilla are you OK?”

Putting down the mug she hurried over and hugged Carmilla and whispered “Don’t go”

Not expecting this reaction, Carmilla put down her mug and returned the hug, then pulled back slightly, so she could kiss Laura on her forehead. 

“Calm down cutie, everything’s OK. I’m not going anywhere. Sit down and eat your breakfast and I’ll explain everything.”

“Something at the graveyard bothered me, I had a sense that there was something weird there that I couldn’t identify, so I did a bit of research overnight. The previous owner of Mrs. Harrison’s property, John Greville died earlier this year and was buried in that graveyard. He seems to have been a perpetually angry man, writing numerous complaints to the local paper and raising issues with the council. Embittered because the townsfolk and the council rejected his ideas about the old town and his insistence on keeping the town as it used to be. He was generally against any change to the older parts of the town. So, it looks as if he still has an ax to grind with the town in life and possibly also in death.

The disturbances can be dated back to his funeral, that’s why you didn’t find any earlier references in the local paper or in the local history.

I think his spirit is now haunting the graveyard and lashing out at anyone who comes near.”

“Really a ghost”

Yes, cupcake it’s not always a Scooby-Doo villain wearing a mask or a big dog, sometimes it is actually a ghost. We are going to have to get rid of it.”

Carmilla hands Laura a piece of paper.

“What is this, Latin?”

“Yes, it is the ‘Incantation of Ad Movere’ which will get rid of unwanted spirits. It’s immensely powerful and very ancient.”

“Where did you find it?

“I got JP to search the Silas collage library ancient texts collection and email it to me. It’s from the Spritus Malignos which JP reckons is the last word on dealing with ghosts.”

“So, you just have to read it out and that’s it gone”

“Pretty much”

“you’re sure that this will work”

“Hopefully, JP was confident”

“Hmm” huffed Laura before finishing the last of her waffles.

Therefore, Laura and Carmilla are once again sat in their car in the middle of the night, outside the churchyard in Whitney.

“So, you’re sure that it’s not the dog?” 

“Yes! Tiny isn’t the problem, he’s just a dog exploring his new environment. There really is something haunting the churchyard”

“So not the dog”

“Nope, now come on” as she got out of the car.

They walk over to the churchyard and Carmilla leads them along the wall to where they had encountered Tiny. Carmilla stops and begins to climb the wall, but before she can get anywhere Laura pulls her back.

“Stop Carm, remember what happened yesterday”

“It’ll be OK Creampuff, watch” and with that Carmilla finished climbing the wall and hopped down into the churchyard unharmed.

“Come on I’ll show you” she reached over the wall and offered an open-mouthed Laura her hand who takes it and scrambles over the wall. 

With Laura safely over the wall, she led them towards the church, although she was ready for it, it was still a shock when she walked into the invisible barrier and she staggered backward.

“Well, that’s as far as I can go, I think that this part of the graveyard is different. Let’s find his grave it should be back this way”

“Here it is” called Laura after a few minutes of searching among the newer headstones. When Carmilla joined her, she shone her flashlight on the gravestone to confirm ‘John Greville 1937-2020’

“Right, let’s get this over with”

Carmilla bangs on the stone and shouts “John Greville show yourself”

Nothing happens, Laura looks around and can see nothing unusual, she jumps when Carmilla strikes the stone again and demands again that the spirit show itself.

The white shape flies out of the ground in front of them and hovers above the gravestone. Laura squeals and clutches at Carmilla. Carmilla merely raises an eyebrow at the ghost.

“You have to move on. Your time has passed”

“Never! I have just started, and I will be listened to. I will be heard “

Carm takes a piece of paper out of her jacket and reads the chant. Nothing happens. The spirit is still hovering there in front of them oblivious to the ancient incantation.

‘Carm?” says a worried Laura moving closer to her girlfriend clutching the back of her jacket.

“Well, it looks as if JP was wrong” she shrugged

The spirit form lets out a scream, flies up, and then swoops down towards them stopping inches in front of Carmilla’s face. The face of the spirit is distorted with anger.

“ha-ha is that the best you’ve got, little girl. Let me show you what I can do” it screams again and with that, his gravestone shatters into thousands of small stone fragments that fly in all directions. Carmilla winces as a fragment strikes her cheek. A few of the larger pieces drop to the ground at her feet.

Carmilla reaches down and picks up a larger piece of stone that has the spirit streaming from it hanging in the air in front of her.

“So still attached to the stones, are we? You really are an amateur with this life after death stuff aren’t you” Carmilla then juggles the stone from hand to hand causing the ghost to waver in the air.

“What are you?” asked the entity, its tone now less confident.

“I’m what ‘the thing that goes bump in the night’ is afraid of” extending her fangs and snarling at the spirit. “This is your last warning”

“No, you can’t do anything to me”

With that Carmilla threw the stone towards the older part of the graveyard as it crossed over the dividing line it seemed to strike something and a series of ripples spread out as if the stone had been dropped into a still pond. For a moment there was silence and then a bright light shot into the sky accompanied by a long stretched out scream that quickly faded away to nothing.

Laura and Carmilla stood there for a few minutes, blinking away the afterglow of the bright light.

Laura hugs Carmilla “so that’s it? Is he really gone?

“Yes, case closed. Now we can go home” turning around wraps her arm around Laura and leads them out of the churchyard and back towards their car.


End file.
